Moore, Bening team up in lesbian family comedy

BERLIN (Reuters) - Julianne Moore and Annette Bening team up in "The Kids Are All Right" in which they play a long-term lesbian couple whose lives are turned upside down when their two teenage children contact their biological father.

The family comedy, screening at the Berlin film festival out of competition, had the audience laughing and applauding on Wednesday with a sharp script and increasingly complicated love triangle that forces the characters to rethink their lives.

Moore, 49, said she had wanted to work with director Lisa Cholodenko since her 1998 feature "High Art," which also involves a lesbian relationship.

Cholodenko took nearly five years to complete the script, although with gay marriage such a hot topic in the United States, her timing turned out to be good.

"I don't see myself as an overtly political person," the director told reporters in Berlin after a press screening.

"What I do feel good about is that there's so much activity in the States right now about gay marriage. I think the timing of this film is quite interesting (although) it's not calculated.

"I feel like, as an artist, I've contributed politically."

Jules (Moore) and Nic (Bening) are trying to be good parents. The wealthy couple are proud of their daughter Joni's academic achievements and struggle to keep an open mind when they think their son Laser may be gay.
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